Interview with August with Author of E. Latimer

Frost has a rather strange origins story. I write a lot of free fiction over on Wattpad, and after I was done one of my series, I felt sort of lost and ended up asking my readers what they'd like to see next. I had loads of suggestions, and someone said "a winter-themed fantasy". I had just moved to Grande Prairie, Alberta at the time, and being a total wimp, was very grumpy about the cold. So it got me thinking about what it would be like if you couldn't FEEL the cold, which lead me to thinking about frost jotun and Norse mythology and...well, you get the picture.

So I started serializing the book on Wattpad, updating whenever I felt like it, listening to reader suggestions chapter by chapter. The book seemed to take off while I was writing, and at this point, it has over 10 million reads on Wattpad. I was approached by a few small presses, but Patchwork Press stood out because they're innovative and full of fresh ideas, not to mention lovely to work with.

Of course, the book has been extensively edited and reworked, but the storyline is still there, and it's thanks to the wonderful readers on Wattpad.

2. Frost is based on 'Norse mythology' for those who don't know, can you tell us a bit about this mythology?

Whew! That's a big question. The most basic answer is that Norse mythology originates from the northernmost parts of Europe, stemming from Norse paganism, and like Greek mythology, it's chock-full of gods and goddesses and their messy shenanigans. Marvel has really run with the Norse myths, so most people will recognize names like Thor and Loki and Odin.

If anyone is curious about more of the basics, I've written a big fat blog post on the nine worlds of Norse mythology here:

People tend to get creative with mythology, and I'm no exception. I've changed quite a few things for the book, and it's interesting to see what people yell at me for. Loki is a main character, and my Loki is very different than classic mythology Loki. I've also taken creative license with the jotun as a race, so if you're the type of person who is terribly offended by this type of thing, I'd say stick to The Prose Edda.

4. What was the hardest part of retelling a mythology?

Well I haven't really retold any of the classic stories, I've just taken aspects of the world and characters and done my own thing. That said, there's still research that had to be done, and a lot of names to remember. I'll go with that for my answer, actually, getting the spelling right. Jotunheim and Muspelheim and Niflheim. Sheesh.

5. What is your writing process like?

You can't see me but I'm laughing over here. My process on Wattpad is a lot of people yelling at me to update and me leaving it until the last possible second, until they get good and mad, and then me going, "Oh, crap, I guess I should get another chapter up before they come for me" and scrambling to write two thousand words in an hour before I have to go make dinner.

So...that's my process.

6. Who designed your cover? And how did the design come about?

The marvelous Jessica Allain designed the cover of Frost. I had a cover over on Wattpad but I wanted something a little more fierce. There's lots of girls in ballgowns on YA covers, and Megan certainly isn't impartial to the odd ballgown, but she also kicks ass with a sword. So I wanted something that showed both of those things.

Jessica pulled that off perfectly, and it was on very little proper instruction from me. I think, with my stunning power of description, I said something like, "Can you make it all swirly and sparkly?" and somehow she pulled the vision right out of my brain and created a masterpiece.

7. Will there be a book two to Frost?

The original book on Wattpad is long as all get-out. It's over 200k words. In order to actually publish it, we had to cut it in half. So the second book is technically already written. It's drastically different from the original though, with new scenes and characters added, and if all goes well, there will be three books to form a trilogy.